Mags and Phil will take turns to sharetheir thoughts and ponderings with the world.

Thursday, 21 June 2012

At one-ness.

Unity is something as Christians we believe in, unity with
God, other Christians, maybe others but we do seem to have differences in
outworking this belief. We believe there is blessing linked to unity following
Psalm 133 and the promise that where unity is there will be blessing and so in
order to get the blessing we work on our unity. Perhaps if we believed in a
unity that was already in existence, or even a blessing that was
non-conditional based on living in the new covenant, we might do things a bit
differently.

If we believe unity with God is something that we work at it
will affect our relationship with God. If we perceive a distance in our
relationship, then we will spend time trying to shorten that distance or feel
that it is too difficult and we might just settle for a long distance
relationship. If however we believe that nothing can separate us from the love
of God, that we are ‘In Christ’ and he is in us, then our conversation will not
start with trying to sort out a distance. In any relationship if we believe we
are in someone’s ‘bad books’ because of our behaviour, we will feel a little
hesitant in our conversation, may even distance ourselves further if we believe
there is no way back. Whereas if we believe we can’t get into someone’s bad
books or that they would never hold a grudge against us, or they are always
wanting to talk to us, always wanting to hear us, not interested even in our
behaviour other than in how it affects us, not the relationship, then perhaps
we wouldn’t waste so much time on sorting out the distance and instead enjoy
our union and enjoy being blessed.

Unity with other Christians is something we all work at to a
point. We are after all too different to be able to get along otherwise we
wouldn’t have so many different kinds of churches. Our differences are much
more fundamental than style, they are based on our doctrines and theology,
there are lines drawn that we aren’t prepared to delete.We have programs and meetings where we try
and get along, if we can do something together maybe we will have the semblance
of unity and maybe that’s all we can hope for. We don’t mention the differences
and we will tolerate ‘the others’ for an hour per term for the sake of unity
and working together for the sake of our community, who to be honest can’t
really get over why if we’re all so loved up with each other we have so many
different churches in the first place. So how can there be ‘real’ unity when we
are all so entrenched in what we believe and can only just about manage to do
things together as long as we don’t mention the war. So what do we have in
common with the ‘others’? What do we share with other Christians? Jesus is
probably the lowest possible common denominator, only belief in him, not really
anything else, but then if we read Corinthians and believe what it says - that
we are automatically part of his body, then we might conclude that Unity is an
actuality and doesn’t need ‘worked on’ or artificially created through
activity. We wouldn’t do things for unity, we would do them because of our
unity.If we believe that the Christian
over the road, in another church, maybe even in no church is fully united to
us, then maybe we would just get along in our relationship, we would again not
try and sort out the distance between us, accept there is no distance and enjoy
our unity and our blessing. What if the church exists as a reality without our
meetings, structures or attendance, what if the church really is the body of
Christ, would we then stop using language like; ‘I’ve left the church’, ‘I
don’t like the church’, ‘the church is controlling and abusive’, ‘the church
ruined my life’ or even ‘I’m off to church’ – only if you’re having some kind
of out of body experience! Perhaps if places have treated us badly we could start
calling them something other than church; ’institution’,‘cult’ and reserve the word church for what
it really is? Perhaps words matter.

What about unity with others, those who are not Christians,
can there,or should there, be unity
with those that do not believe in Jesus, not as a saviour, not in a
relationship with him, wouldn’t step into our buildings, should there be unity
with ‘the others’? I’m thinking Yes. I’m not saying I’m right, I’m just
thinking/writing out loud.

What if, unity is something so much bigger than we ever
thought before? What if the ‘ministry of reconciliation’ is not only about
helping people to see that Jesus has reconciled them to God, what if it is also
no longer seeing people as sinners, no longer seeing a separation between ‘us’
and ‘them’? Here’s a definition;

Separatism - the advocacy of a state of cultural, ethnic,
tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger
group. So perhaps we have something of the separatist in all of us; ‘the saved
vs the damned’, ‘Christians vs other faiths or the atheists’, ‘Catholics’ vs
the rest’, ‘the Charismatics/Pentecostals vs traditional/established’. We
really are like a Monty Python sketch -People’s Front of Judea vs Judean
People’s front! We have so many ways to draw lines to separate one group of
Christians from each other, never mind where we draw lines between ‘believers’
and ‘unbelievers’. I’m not saying let’s scrap all the buildings and rent a
stadium where we can all be together as we do have different theologies and
styles but I am wondering whether we should practise erasing some of these
lines. Could we consider seeing past a person’s behaviour or theology to see a
unity that transcends everything else? Can we delete some of the lines/fences,
not just between Christian to Christian but between any sense of ‘us’ and ‘them’?
To be able to see unity between one human being and the next. Not just
artificial, worked at unity, but a belief that there is no separation. More
than seeing that there is no real separation between one Christian and another
but no separation between one human and another, no distance between the people.
To begin with, how about we are all made in the image of God? That is something
we believe, not an illusion and not something to be worked at, it is a reality,
male and female made in the image of God. So if we take that as a starting
point in our relationships with others then we would not start with the
differences, particularly in value between one person and the next. Could we
start to see past someone’s behaviour and see the image of God in them? Could
we love people on the basis that there is no separation between us rather than
trying to love people because we have to, ‘we have to try really hard to love
the person when we don’t like them because we’re a Christian’. To see past
behaviour, see a person that is the same as us and allow a love to flow from
our union with God and our unity with them through some invisible channel?
Perhaps like Jesus saw past our behaviour and loved us anyway??

How much of the world’s difficulties come from separatism,
my culture is better than yours, my gender is better than yours, my meetings
and theology are better than yours. What if we believed in unity and lived from
a belief in reconciliation.

Another definition;

Reconcile - to make two 'apparently' conflicting things
compatible or consistent with each other. Harmonious is also linked to
reconciliation, living in harmony with one another.We talk of relationships being reconciled,
our relationship with God has been reconciled by Jesus, he did the
reconciliation for us. The trinity living in harmony with each other with a
desire for unity with us and with each other. John 17 talks of one-ness with
each other, unity like Jesus has with his Father. The prayer is for all
believers and we could say that if Jesus saw a division between believers and
unbelievers so should we and this one-ness is only for believers, but I think
we should push this one further and would like to suggest that perhaps separation
was never God’s intention. Not between us and Him or indeed between human to
human. Being separate from one another surely is a disadvantage, the tower of
Babel is a testimony to one language possibility and perhaps speaking in
tongues by the power of the Holy Spirit was not meant to be used as some kind
of ‘good Christian’ barometer but instead as a language to unite people
together. Yes a heavenly language used for worship and prayer but maybe, just
maybe Paul used tongues the most because he was travelling the most and knew
that speaking the same language as his hearers created a sense of unity.
Perhaps being all things to all people meant he found unity where we would now
see the differences. Perhaps if we believe that the Kingdom is here already
then we wouldn’t worry about changing people’s cultures as the Kingdom is
already the uniting force.

We say let’s honour our differences but maybe we actually
mean let’s keep them.Let’s honour our
uniqueness and yes we are all created with different fingerprints, live in
different cultures and 50% of the population have different body parts but this
uniqueness could also be outworked in the bigger reality of unity.

I suppose I’m just a bit tired of the line drawing, the line
between good and bad, the line between saved and not, the line between secular
and sacred, the line between us and them. All these ways to separate ourselves
from others, to see differences, to hole up in our own safe world and hope
nobody infiltrates the ranks with some weird teaching about one-ness with God and
with all of humanity. Maybe my cave is best or maybe it’s time to think bigger
than I have done before. Maybe love never fails.